When a Good Brand Goes Bad: Colourpop’s Product Naming Fauxpas

Colourpop Cosmetics’s popularity has risen in recent years due to their not only affordable beauty products but the amazing quality that comes with such a low price tag. With products ranging from highlighters to liquid lipsticks to more recently brow products, their range (and following) has had steady but exponential growth in their few, established years.

Enter their newest product: contour sticks. The company’s “Sculpting Stix” seemed great. The best part? They offer a range of colors, encouraging a still-troubled diversity in the beauty industry. The problem with this seemingly great step towards diversity? The names given to the products at the darker end of the spectrum.

With product names like “Venice” and “Castle” for the lighter shades, it is unacceptable for the darker to receive the names “Type” and “Yikes”. Is this calling darker skin an error? With those product names, it seemingly is and the make-up community was in an uproar upon noticing the difference in names.

Taking to Twitter, beauty blogs, Instagram, and other various social media platforms, some customers voiced that they would be boycotting the popular brand and shared their disappointment about how such a successful, seemingly race inclusive beauty company could produce products with names like that.

In a statement issued to Buzzfeed News, the company swiftly apologized for the naming issue and thanks their customers for speaking up about it, ensuring their feedback is heard and will strive to avoid future situations like this one.

Since the first release, the products named “Yikes” and “Typo” have been changed to “Bloom” and “Platonic” r